The Ministry of Defence has reportedly banned Philip Hammond from using a fleet of RAF jets and helicopters used by senior members of the Government.

The Treasury has been accused of owing a six-figure sum over previous flights made with No 32 (The Royal) Squadron and until that bill is settled Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials who take VIP bookings have allegedly been ordered to to refuse any more travel requests

The Irish government must now put the sums in a blocked bank account while waiting for the result of Apple's and its own appeal to the European Commission. Ireland built its economic success on being a low tax entryway for multinationals seeking access to the EU, and is concerned that collecting the back taxes could dent its attractiveness to firms.

Brian Ross, a longtime investigative reporter at the network, reported Friday morning during a special report that Flynn had been directed to contact Russian officials by then-candidate Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. ... but filings from the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller [STATEMENT OF OFFENSE] did not allege any contacts during the campaign itself, or implicate Mr. Trump directly.

You're probably not interested in the latest sexual harrasment accusations in the US. But the James Levine accusations (which I knew about over 30 years ago) have a classic response from the Met on NPR.

And the Met says it first learned of Ashok Pai's allegations in 2016 when police in Illinois contacted the Opera House. And the Met's administration asked Levine about the allegations, and he denied them. And that was that.

Perhaps the candidate-martyr would have obtained satisfactory results had Mr Levin's behavior been characterized "sexual misconduct", as everyone in the USA is conversant with permissible "sexual conduct" the allegations and compensatory damages obtained by the offended,

Chris Brown, who played principal bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for more than three decades, said that Mr. Levine masturbated him that summer -- and then coaxed him to reciprocate -- when Mr. Brown was 17 at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan. Mr. Levine, then 25, was a rising star on the summer program's faculty. James Lestock said that Mr. Levine also masturbated him there that summer when Mr. Lestock was 17 and a cello student -- the first of many sexual encounters with Mr. Levine that have haunted him. And Ashok Pai, who grew up in Illinois near the Ravinia Festival, where Mr. Levine was music director, said that he was sexually abused by Mr. Levine starting in the summer of 1986, when Mr. Pai was 16 -- an accusation he made last year in a report to the Lake Forest Police Department in Illinois.

if any, would need no ahhh excuplatory explanation thirty years later.

Under President Jacob Zuma, the state is failing. Contracts are awarded through bribes and connections; ruling-party members murder each other over lucrative government jobs; crooks operate with impunity.

Next week comes a moment that may determine whether South Africa slides further into this mire or starts to recover. At a conference that starts on December 16th the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is due to choose the successor to Mr Zuma as its leader, and thus its candidate for presidency of the country. The front-runners are Mr Zuma's ex-wife and preferred candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and the deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa. For South Africa and for the whole African continent, Mr Ramaphosa needs to win.

Mandela weeps

South Africa is no longer in the forefront of the world's consciousness, as it was in the 1990s when it made its miraculously peaceful transition from a racist regime to a modern democracy. But it still matters, and not just to its 57m people. With its superior financial and physical infrastructure, it is Africa's economic hub. Its diplomatic and moral authority shapes southern Africa, for worse as well as better: without its support, Robert Mugabe would have lost power in Zimbabwe long ago. And, at the moment, it is the site of the most visible battle in the world between good and bad government.

Tuesday, 5 December, the EU Council released a raft of documents addressing tax avoidance and evasion within the EU as reforming tax competition worldwide. Offers a legislative formula ("BEPS Package") to assist "developing" governments' compliance with "The Code of Conduct for Business Taxation", which is not legally binding on EU members. Through the press enthusiastic EU constituents threaten sanctions against scofflaws.

source: ANNEX I - II (abridged), "The EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes" and Council conclusions adopted 12 May 2017, published 5 Dec 2017.
* an acronym of Special Administrative Region (of the People's Republic of China), likewise Hong Kong SAR. Inexplicably Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories, and Channel Islands are neither distinguished nor excluded, as are 'Hurricane Countries' granted temporary reprieve, among subsets of deficient AND co-operative jurisdictions ("grey" listings] which have committed in some form or another to sign, ratify, and implement either the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) or the "network of agreements covering all EU Member States" by CYE 2019, the latest.

EURACTIV France reports. ...The "PANA" report is due to be debated and adopted on 12 December in Strasbourg. Many of the crucial problems identified by the authors concern the lack of application of common tax rules. ... for example only six out of 28 countries have put in place the 4th anti-money laundering directive, which must be implemented before the end of 2017.

Africa is already severely affected by climate change. 80% of the potential 20 million hectares of rain-fed lowland rice are threatened by drought, a terrifying report by the Environmental Justice Foundation concluded.

"Sub-Saharan Africa faces the highest risk of changing weather patterns; the region is home to 17 of the 20 countries most economically reliant on agriculture and among the worst-placed countries to withstand repeated disruption to harvests. "

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Is there a slowdown in the Chinese nuclear sector, as some observers have argued, ending nuclear power's "last hope for growth"? No, says François Morin, Director China of the World Nuclear Association. Nuclear has experienced a temporary setback but is still set for strong growth the coming years.

Much speculation is made about nuclear power in China from the observation that no new construction authorizations have been delivered in 2016 and 2017. This is sometimes characterized as a "slowdown" in line with the rest of the world, giving reason to nuclear pessimists to announce the inexorable decline of nuclear power in the world. They say nuclear power has simply become too expensive, even for the state-owned enterprises in a country like China. But do the most recent facts corroborate such theory?

The National Energy Administration (NEA) issued a report on October 31 with detailed figures showing that electricity consumption, after a fall in 2015 (growth of just 0.5%) has fully recovered in 2016 and shown further growth in the first 9 months of 2017. Growth is now at 6.4%, equal to GDP growth itself.